A dusty gravel driveway leads to an old house once occupied by an Appalachian family. Next door is a little shack that sells hot dogs and ice cream, and a few miles away is a series of coal processing plants.

Although Carly Fiorina was sacked in one of the most humbling ousters in corporate America, her initial moves to reinvigorate Hewlett-Packard Co. are now paying off in HP's healthy profit and recent stock surge.

A recent high-profile Microsoft hire, brought onboard to work on Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie's Windows Live vision, has suddenly announced his pending departure, citing a pullback on plans he had signed on to implement.